Math News

Mathematics as a discipline prepares you for anything, and this year's class exemplifies this with their diversity of interests and goals. The class of 2018 was celebrated on Saturday, May 19 with a rain-free morning graduation ceremony.

This year's class has double majors in economics, finance, computer science, physics, elementary and middle school education, music, philosophy, and accounting! They conquered classes from Calculus I through Linear Algebra to Real Analysis and Mathematical Statistics this last semester.

After graduation they will be living everywhere from Japan to Boston; work plans range from teaching in Salem, Mass., to ESPN data headquarters, to studying to be an airline pilot, to helping with a medical mission in Kenya; graduate school plans include PhD programs in applied math, economics, and computer science, but also music composition, leadership, and history.

We are very proud of our graduates and hope to share some of their stories in the coming years, just as we share previous alumni stories here now. Congratulations, Class of 2018!

Honors Graduates 2018

In a typical year, we may have one or two students receiving honors in the discipline. This year, however, no fewer than five Gordon math majors walked the stage with honors theses in four different disciplines—several directly related to mathematics, all using data in one way or another.

Holly Gershman, honors in elementary education, with a project in reducing student chatter in the elementary classroom

Brynn Grambow, honors in mathematics, with a project in algebra and combinatorics in music theory (see image)

Courtney Lacson, honors in elementary education, with a project in reducing student blurting in the elementary classroom

Angela Wickett, honors in middle school education, with a project on conversation and journaling in building confidence in mathematics

Rachel You, honors in computer science, with a project on predicting interestingness of images using neural networks and linear algebra

Data science is a buzzword, but strong math and computer skills are what it is really about. Demonstrating this, two Gordon teams competed in the recent North Shore Data Modeling Competition, hosted by local colleagues at Endicott College and sponsored by Net Atlantic. Senior Matt Versland took home the grand prize in a solo effort, winning over $1000 by doing the best job solving an "original email marketing predictive modelling problem." Congratulations! See the full press release for a great picture of the winners.

Gordon presents talks at North Shore math conference

The eighth annual North Shore Undergraduate Mathematics Conference was held at Merrimack College on April 7, and Gordon was well-represented. In addition to competing in the team math event, we had two groups of presenters from MAT 353 talking on the topic of infinitesimals, and senior Brynn Grambow talking about how math and music interact. A highlight was Dr. Lauren Sager '11, now teaching at St. Anselm College, giving the keynote talk on the topic of the "Winding Number"!

You can see all of them in the picture, which also includes a graph of the many interrelationships between all the campuses represented. Next year's conference might be at Gordon; contact Dr. Crisman for further information.

Special Visitor

This spring, we have several exciting opportunities for students! Some include Dr. Lauren Sager '11 visiting to talk in Math Forum, and the North Shore Undergraduate Mathematics Conference at Merrimack College; see the Math Events page on the left.

But on April 11–13, we have a very special guest, Wheaton College (IL) professor Robert Brabenec. He has been an expert on the teaching of Real Analysis (including a book of resources published by the Math Association of America) for fifty years and often gives talks on aspects of the history of analysis and calculus.

Among other topics, Dr. Brabenec will speak on notions of infinity and the roles of axioms in proving calculus works. Contact the mathematics program and Dr. Stout for more information and times/locations of the talks, and help us welcome this distinguished visitor to campus!

"I do love Cardiff!!! It is a smaller city than I expected, so you could explore the city. . . I like to chill out in my room and watch some movies on rainy days. Self-study is more important; we don't have exams or quizzes until the final, which is less stressful but means I have to study [independently] a lot."

Faculty Updates

What have Gordon's faculty been up to this fall and spring?

Dr. Senning was on sabbatical in Fall 2017, studying the hot topic of Machine Learning for future research work with students and bringing into upper-level math and computer science courses. A highlight for us this spring was his talk on "Dual Numbers and Automatic Differentiation" in the Math Forum; who knew there was a connection between algebra, calculus, and getting computers to recognize the difference between cats and dogs?

Dr. Veatch continues work on his “Informed compassion: how faith shapes decisions in Christian relief” planning grant from the CCCU, along with colleagues from MIT and Wheaton (IL). In Summer 2018 he will work with Shinae Lee '19 on an expanded survey and case study of how Christian agencies organize their responses to disasters.

Joint Meetings in San Diego

Every year, the world comes to the Joint Mathematics Meetings in January. This year, it was Gordon that came too! With two faculty, two current students and four alumni in or finishing Ph.D.s, it was quite a reunion!

Among alumni, Leonard Stevenson '13 presented portions of his thesis at Drexel University on non-commutative functions, while Melissa Haire '13 reported on her research at the University of Connecticut on quantitative literacy centers. We were also pleased to see Katharine Adamyk '14 representing the University of Colorado in the grad school fair and Lauren Sager '11 coming from St. Anselm College in Manchester, NH.

What about those still on campus? Seniors Rachel You and Luke Cui both presented in the undergraduate research poster session, on projects from the Math in Industry class the previous spring about DNA fragmentation and using graphs in Network Security, respectively. Dr. Crisman presented on teaching number theory interactively, as well as a minicourse for faculty on writing interactive texts using PreTeXt.

Gordon senior Sarah Li and recent graduate Kevin Neil presented a poster in July at MathFest in Chicago based on their semester-long project for the Gordon College Registrar. The project, which studied classroom usage and improved methods of assigning rooms to classes, was part of a class funded by the National Science Foundation’s Preparation for Industrials Careers in Mathematics (PIC Math) program. While there they met other student teams from around the country. The project was timely for Gordon, which is just reaching the point where letting every department set the times of their courses is creating too much demand for classrooms at the most popular times.

Summer of Math

Although the day-to-day activities of the Gordon mathematics program cool down as the summer heats up, we still have plenty to occupy our time. What are your summer plans?

We congratulate rising seniors Leah Miller and Jess Wild on their NSF-funded summer research experiences off-campus! (And look forward to their presenting on their work to students in the fall.)

Dr. Veatch travels to Chicago to continue his work in humanitarian logistics. This is part of a CCCU grant, “Informed compassion: how faith shapes decisions in Christian relief”, he received with collaborators at Wheaton, Hope, and MIT.

The entire mathematics program was warmly welcomed at the 21st biennial conference of the Association of Christians in the Mathematical Sciences at Charleston Southern University from May 31–June 3, 2017. A wonderful time was had, including talks by Dr. Stout, Dr. Veatch, Dr. Crisman, and Dr. Lauren Sager '11; the latter two also provided musical accompaniment for the Saturday morning worship service! (See if you can find all five Gordon folks in the picture.)

Thinking on the Alumni Front

With the end of classes, the Gordon mathematics team starts thinking of alumni. Do these apply to you? Maybe they will in four short years!

First, let us congratulate the many seniors who graduated on May 20th! Future plans include everything from further study in statistics to teaching in public elementary schools, from life in the web programming world to the Episcopal priesthood.

Did you know that mathematics students can study abroad many places? Amanda Colon, a junior mathematics and finance double major, spent the spring semester studying business and economics at the University of Edinburgh. Amanda writes, “both academically and personally, I have learned a lot about independence. Gordon has really prepared me for the academic aspect of it, but more than anything, studying abroad is stretching me, maturing my values, and focusing my career interests.” She has also found time to explore the Scottish Highlands.

If you are interested in global study as part of your mathematics education at Gordon, don't hesitate to contact the Global Education Office for more information!

Back to Budapest - and Beyond

Gordon College is proud to have often sent its top students to the selective Budapest Semesters in Mathematics study abroad program. This year we once again have one, junior Leah Miller (left), who is taking courses on everything from complex analysis to philosophy of math.

But did you know that there is now also a program for computer science majors, the AIT Budapest program? Math and CS double major Christine Frandsen (right) is Gordon's first-ever participant in this growing study abroad option, where the real-life Eastern European high-tech industry meets the mathematical theory of computer science.

Joint Meetings in Atlanta

Every January the mathematics community comes together for a week of research and teaching talks along with lots of networking. As always, there was a Gordon contingent! This year, Dr. Crisman presented a talk on some classroom activities and led a workshop on a free math book authoring tool. It was a joy to reconnect with alumna Joy Kimmel '15, who is finishing her Master's in computational science at Georgia Tech.

However, the highlight was senior Sunny Kim presenting her summer research in "Voting with Broad Support" at the undergraduate poster session. Despite snow in Atlanta and many potential travel woes, she was able to show off her work to thousands of other mathematicians. Congratulations, and thanks to the Gordon College Undergraduate Research Council for making it possible!

Fall Doings

The mathematics program was busy in Fall 2016. Here are a few highlights.

At our department convocation in October, we were led in worship before hearing about spring courses and, most importantly, about what it's like to be a nationally ranked judoka from Alaska from senior double major (math/CS) Christine Frandsen.

Gordon was well represented at the Fall MAA Section Meeting in Hartford at Trinity College. In addition to summer research students presenting their work, six students enjoyed a panel on careers, a great talk about math in Hollywood animation, and a trip to some local restaurants for fellowship.

Bookending all this were two great parties at Dr. Tuck's (computer science) house for a full department introductory party and Christmas celebration. Sadly, computer science yet again won the volleyball game in the fall, but it was a different story on the ping-pong table in the winter.

Odds and Ends

As we prepare to welcome the class of 2020 (!), it's worth noting a few odds and ends that have come our way.

Gordon had a contingent, as always, at the North Shore Undergraduate Math Conference on April 9 at Salem State. As always, there were good speakers and a fun math competition—which a Gordon team once again won! (New this year were mathematical coloring pages to work on during the breaks.)

The work summer research students Luke Cui '18 and Sunny Kim '17 have done with Prof. Crisman was profiled on the main college website—it's worth a read, and note the large amount of math to think about in the accompanying picture!

Finally, we thought readers might like to see a picture of the fun our MAT 353 Real Analysis class had presenting to students at the 2016 Symposium on connections between higher-level math and the liberal arts (one group focusing on the Fibonacci sequence, the other on Fourier analysis). Those golden ratio spiral cupcakes won't eat themselves!

By the way, don't forget the upcoming Math/CS Picnic at Professor Tuck's house the first full week of class! Hope you had a great summer.

Voting and Data Science at Spring MAA Meeting

Summer research students Luke Cui '18 and Sunny Kim '17 decided to get a leg up on presenting their work by giving an introduction to an interesting voting paradox in their student talk "The No-Show Paradox" at the Spring Meeting of the Northeastern Section of the Math Association of America. They received good feedback and definitely puzzled a few math professors with this interesting paradox in which voters do better by staying home!

Other highlights of the meeting included a very useful panel on data science careers (short version; everybody wants data scientists, but no one can define what they are) and a dinner talk by the president of the MAA, Francis Su. Held at the University of New England, it was a real treat for them as well as another student who came up. Dr. Crisman also participated on a panel on the SageMathCloud.

Graduation

We'd like to congratulate all the graduating seniors! Commencement was a beautiful sunny day. We have students who will be starting a range of different careers as well. Among some of the interesting next steps:

Teaching at the Landmark school right down the street in Beverly

Going to Kerala, India to support a spouse with a Fulbright and begin a career in the publishing world

Preparing for medical school in a postbaccalaureate program

Working for State Street Bank in their finance operations

Working for Gordon's admissions office in data analysis

Of special note is that Wesley Nelson graduated with honors, after defending his senior thesis on graphs and gene sequences. He will be starting in North Carolina State University's Ph.D. program this fall.

Dr. Stout and the Intrinsic Beauty of Mathematics

When you think of mathematics, the Gordon math faculty hope you think of beauty—especially Dr. Richard Stout. Now in his 36th year at Gordon, he's now been honored by a story on the main Gordon website which prominently discusses that beauty—as well as things like knitted ties and changes at Gordon over the years.

Why not join the students and alumni of whom he says, "I appreciate the number of students who have come through and grown over the years. I’ve grown to admire their faith commitment—their commitment to be people of God." And learn about the beauty God's shown in mathematics!

Gordon Junior Presents at Joint Mathematics Meetings

What did you do over your Christmas break? Math and Chemistry junior Rachel Olugbemi presented her summer research at the Joint Mathematics Meetings in Seattle—along with six Thousand of her closest mathematical friends! There were hundreds of undergraduates presenting in the poster session alone (including her two collaborators, not pictured).

The Joint Meetings are the biggest math conference each year, and Drs. Stout, Senning, and Crisman also attended. But don't think you have to present there to have a great experience! For instance, watch out for news of the annual North Shore Undergraduate Math Conference, as well as local MAA meetings like the one Gordon hosted this past fall. Or maybe go with the Math Club to the Museum of Mathematics in NYC? Or you could even study abroad in Budapest—which is what Rachel is doing to follow up on her experience in Seattle.

Students Win at MAA Conference at Gordon

The Northeastern Section of the MAA hosted its fall sectional at Gordon, and with over 150 total participants a good time was had by faculty and students alike! We were proud of the many assistants and student ambassadors who welcomed visitors to campus - many for the first time - and of our Gordon students who gave talks.

Most impressive was the tie for 3rd place by the Gordon teams in the Collegiate Math Competition. Congratulations to the teams: Wes Nelson, Rachel Olugbemi, Luke Cui and Jacob Yang, Sadie Xiang, Rachel You!

Math Alumna wins national poster competition

Math alumna Maya Bam '12 is a Ph.D. student at the University of Michigan in Operations Research. At the national INFORMS conference for this mathematical field, she won the Interactive Session on Tuesday with her poster "Surgery Scheduling with Recovery Resources." Congratulations!

Operations Research is a burgeoning discipline at the interface of mathematics, business, and other applications, often called "The Science of Better." Talk to Dr. Veatch to find out more about this field, or just take the introductory course with him next fall!

Mathematical Convocation Speaker on Humanitarian Logistics

Where can you use mathematics in real life? Can you use it to help those in need? Mathematician Jarrod Goentzel of MIT believes you can. He is the all-campus Convocation speaker on October 30th, speaking on "Humanitarian Supply Chains: Emergency Relief, Global Health, and Food Security." He focuses his research on "meeting human needs in resource-constrained settings" and has degrees from Tabor College, Colorado State, and Georgia Tech.

Mathematical Association of America Conference at Gordon!

The Northeastern Section of the MAA will be hosting its Fall Meeting at Gordon College for the first time! On November 20th and 21st, mathematicians and students from all over New England will converge in Wenham to enjoy student talks, invited speakers, a team math competition, and of course the last of the fall foliage. The meeting website has all the information you need.

On-campus, please contact Dr. Crisman or Dr. Veatch for more information, and email Dr. Senning post haste to volunteer as a student helper/ambassador.

Welcome Class of 2019!

With just a few weeks before classes begin, we're excited about both returning students and a strong incoming class of math majors. What were your best summer experiences, mathematically and spiritually? What are you excited about?

Also, please keep watching the Math Events page for information about the fall, such as our fall kickoff cookout, scheduled for Thursday, September 3rd!

Student presenting at Spring MAA Meeting

Graduating senior Peter Story just can't quit doing math and computer science! He presented at Keene State College in New Hampshire at the end of May, giving a talk about "Smartphone Movement as a Biometric."

This occurred at the Spring Meeting of the Math Association of America. Gordon will be hosting the Fall Meeting in November 2015—be sure to come join us!

Commencement Fun!

We had about 20 graduating seniors at commencement this year; in recognition of this, some of the seniors decided to do something unusual with their mortarboards. Can you figure out what familiar mathematical constant they approximated?

During the time at Gordon, students develop close working relationships with faculty. This year, we celebrated this with a nice dinner and reminiscing time with all the seniors! Many already have jobs or graduate school options, including working for Raytheon and studying at Georgia Tech. Some will be teaching at high schools or middle schools near you!

Gordon team wins at North Shore math conference

The fifth annual North Shore Undergraduate Mathematics Conference was held at Merrimack College on March 28th. Four Gordon students attended and won the team math competition! Other activities included an invited talk on combinatorial game theory, student presentations by undergraduates at colleges such as Western New England and Salem State, and a lot of socializing at lunch with other people who enjoy wearing Pi Day shirts.

Next year's conference is scheduled to be at Salem State; contact Dr. Crisman for further information.

Gordon students to do research this summer

Two Gordon mathematics students will pursue undergraduate research this summer. Freshman Ethan Kang will work with Dr. Veatch on a Gordon-sponsored project in "Robust Optimization," while sophomore math and chemistry double major Rachel Olugbemi will travel to Tyler, Texas to research chemical graph theory in an NSF-sponsored research experience.

Many Gordon students do independent research as part of their undergraduate studies; contact any faculty member to talk about how this works!

Gordon student studying in Budapest

This spring, we pray for a good journey and studies for junior Wes Nelson, who will be studying in Budapest, Hungary, via the Budapest Semesters in Mathematics. This rigorous program has allowed top Gordon students to take a huge variety of courses (in English!) with other students from around the US in one of the world's mathematical capitals.

Think you might be interested? Talk to your advisor and the Global Education Office; you will need to take Real Analysis or Algebraic Structures before or during application.

Busy Sabbaticals

Three of Gordon's four mathematics professors have had well-earned time to investigate scholarly matters—all of which they hope to bring back to the classroom too.

In Spring 2014, Dr. Stout continuing studying the fascinating life of George Peacock and how he helped revolutionize math education in England. Dr. Stout has often shared about this in senior seminar, and Math Forum.

In Fall 2014, Dr. Crisman continued work on the mathematics of voting and gave talks on this in Chennai, India and Cape Town. He has explored this with students both in research and in a Core course.

In Spring 2015, Dr. Veatch continues research in humanitarian logistics. Students have worked with him and contacts at MIT in the past, and possible careers enliven discussion in Vocation Seminar and Operations Research.

Math, Programming, and the Developing World

There are math opportunities to serve around the globe. In 2014, Dr. Crisman was invited to teach the basics of using programming to explore mathematics abroad and hopes to bring lessons learned back to Gordon students, perhaps finding connections for future internships or employment.

In the tropics of Chennai, the Institute for Mathematical Sciences hosts graduate students from all over India. Dr. Crisman ran the beginning of a course for these students, focused on using the open-source program Sage to do research. You can catch the lectures and videos on YouTube!

Later, he ran a course called "Experimental Mathematics with Sage" for the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Cape Town. AIMS students from the entire African continent prepare for Ph.D. programs, industry, or to teach in their home countries. Working on homework can be fun with forty of your closest friends from Algeria to Zambia!

Museum of Math in NYC

In March 2014 the math club organized a day trip to the National Museum of Mathematics in Manhattan. The only museum in the nation dedicated to mathematics, the MoM opened in 2012 and has exhibits and programs for all ages. The participants got to see not only the museum but took in lunch and visited Central Park during this one-day trip

Student Achievements

Congratulations to Olivia Gray and Katharine Adamyk, two senior mathematics majors! Olivia successfully presented and defended her honors thesis "Robust Optimization of Queues and Variations on a Series Line" this past December, while Katharine is entering the Ph.D. program in mathematics at the University of Colorado.

Also congratulations to junior Joy Kimmel, who has been accepted to several REU programs for the summer. She will be attending a program at Ohio Wesleyan University, working on weather modeling with several other students from across the country.

Recent Conferences

Gordon people attended many math-related conferences during 2013-14. In addition to the Joint Mathematics Meetings and MAA Sectional Meeting mentioned below, in April 2014 we hosted the fourth annual North Shore Undergraduate Math Conference.

Last November, Dr. Veatch gave a talk in Minneapolis at a national operations research conference. The topic, robust optimization, included some research done with Gordon senior Olivia Gray.

Drs. Crisman, Senning, and Stout all attended the May/June 2013 meeting of the Association of Christians in the Mathematical Sciences at Bethel University.

MIT Graduate Student Speaks

In 2013, the proposal of an MIT graduate student in Operations Research, Peng Shi, was selected as the new way to help select schools for thousands of Boston public school students. Peng's combination of listening and robust analysis led to this adoption, showing data-driven simulation is a powerful tool for guiding public policy decisions. Peng is also the president of MIT's Graduate Christian Fellowship and spoke about all of these things on January 30th, 2014 in a well-attended Math Forum event in KOSC 109.

Students and Faculty Present at Joint Mathematics Meetings

Several Gordon faculty and one Gordon student attended the Joint Mathematics Meetings in Baltimore, the largest mathematics meeting in the world, during the first few days of the new semester in 2014.

Senior Katharine Adamyk presented a poster on her research into genes, games, and graphs from a summer research experience, and Dr. Crisman presented a poster on the new Mentoring Math Circles partnership with Girls Inc. of Lynn. Will we see you at the next meeting in San Antonio?

Gordon Students Place in Regional Math Competition

Mathematics seniors Olivia Gray and Katharine Adamyk placed second out of dozens of teams in the team math competition at the Northeastern Sectional meeting of the MAA in November. The problems were from geometry, calculus, number theory, and other areas. This is the fourth year Gordon has participated in the competition.

Summer Student Research in High Gear

Summer break doesn't keep Gordon mathematics students from pursuing new knowledge. Olivia Gray '14 and Juliann Booth '15 are engaged in two different types of applied research. Professor Jonathan Senning points out that it's not just useful, either—"there's beauty to be seen; here it comes by way of trying to do something useful."

Professor Mike Veatch is working with Olivia on investigating how manufacturing systems for everything from circuit boards to battleships can become 'clogged', and how to tell how congested a system is. Juliann's goal while working with Dr. Senning is to develop a computer tool using a method for generating random numbers following some constraints that can solve global optimization problems. See the full article for more details on their exciting summer of research!

Off to Graduate School

We'd like to congratulate seniors Melissa Haire and Leonard Stevenson, who will both be starting Ph.D. programs this fall! Melissa will be headed to the University of Connecticut, while Leonard will be studying at Drexel University in Philadelphia.

Gordon Math program receives MAA grant

After two successful pilot events, Gordon College has received a grant from the Tensor Foundation and the Math Association of America in conjunction with the middle school program at Girls Inc. of Lynn. Gordon students will run a "Mentoring Math Circle" to inspire girls to adopt positive attitudes and curiosity towards mathematics. The Mentoring Math Circle will meet six times a semester (including a field trip) with Girls Inc. students to facilitate an exploratory mathematical experience.

The photo is from one of the pilot events, on soap films and math. Everyone had fun and some people even got a little wet!

High-Performance Computing comes to Gordon

For the past year, Professor Jonathan Senning (who holds a joint appointment in Mathematics and Computer Science) has been helping teach students to enter the cutting-edge world of high-performance computing with the help of grants from XSEDE, the Shodor Foundation, and the HPC Educators Program (SC12). Along with Peter Story '14 he attended a conference and built our own LittleFe small high-performance cluster, and students in the Parallel and High-Performance Computing class in Spring 2013 learned about topics such as using graphics cards and Hadoop - all for distributed computing.

Gordon College is one of the nation's premier Christian colleges and located just north of Boston. We offer students extraordinary access to leading-edge opportunities for intellectual, professional, and leadership development to address the increasingly complex challenges of a global society. Gordon stands apart from other outstanding institutions in New England by combining an exceptional education with an informed Christian faith.